


Ali Baba's Cave of Wonders

by rightsidethru



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 23:25:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rightsidethru/pseuds/rightsidethru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are many things that Mr. Gold keeps in his shop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ali Baba's Cave of Wonders

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tricksandarrows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tricksandarrows/gifts).



Here was a world that had been bled dry of magic long ago:

Whether this reality had--once upon a time ago--had magic, a thrilling pulse that beat through every moment, connecting the present and past and future to a plethora of impossibilities made possible... none of it mattered, not truly. Not anymore. The magic had faded and children eventually grew up to realize that wishing on a falling star changed nothing.

Imagination, creativity, _power_... concepts faded away, leaving reality to be painted in shades of black and white; and, truly, how much those carefully drawn lines ached for the man who dealt in shadows, in shades of gray.

No, no magic here--

And yet, regardless of the impossible possibilities--and possible impossibilities--Mr. Gold (Repelsteeltje; Päronskaft; Tom Tit Tot; Rumpelstilzchen; _Rumpelstiltskin_ \--remember the name, dearie!) still managed to work a bit of magic. No, nothing like what the Dark One, like Rumpelstiltskin, used to be able to do with only a snap of his fingers, but... _oh_... How everyone dismissed so easily the magic that memories held.

So many emotions, so many experiences--the joys and trials and tribulations that each and every person went through during the course of their long or short lives--so many meanings attached to shallow, simple objects. _Possessions_. And how wonderful a thing that they all, one way or another, eventually came to _their_ journey's end (a new beginning?) within his collection.

The Forty Thieves' stolen fortune.

Ali Baba's Cave of Wonders.

...disguised as the Mr. Gold Pawnbroker & Antiquities Dealer pawnshop. The refuse pile for so many inhabitants of Storybrooke, each person never realizing just what, exactly, they were bartering away in their own individual version of 'the deal with the devil,' a Faustian contract where each sold their soul to Mephistopheles.

With a slight smile, Mr. Gold walked further into his small shop after flipping the window's sign to 'Open,' well-groomed fingertips lightly brushing over the delicate glass unicorn mobile that would have belonged to Emma Swan once upon a different story ago. The marionettes that had--again, once upon a time ago--been living, breathing people were spared with barely a glance, as with a golden lamp and a chess set that Snow White would have found all too familiar, but Mr. Gold paused (just for a moment) before a dark wooden box that gleamed with high polish, nary a fingerprint smudge in sight.

That moment stretched on longer and, finally, Mr. Gold reached out to flip open the chest's switch with a flick of his thumb, lifting the lid to glance down upon Killian Jones' left hand. Still as fresh, as unaged and as calloused as that first day that he had taken the limb from the pirate captain: even here, in this magicless world, there still remained no sign of rot. But, oh, its very presence was all that stronger of a reminder that objects here clung to a different sort of power.

Old emotions surged twined through with memories and fairy tale stories both, raging through mind, body, and soul, and it was with the utmost amount of care that Mr. Gold finally let the hidden chest's top fall shut with a muted 'click,' lock once more snapping into place.

Magic in memories, memories in well-loved possessions, power in magic:

And Rumpelstiltskin had ever kept a tight hold on power ( _on magic_ ).


End file.
